During his stop in Sweden, President Obama was asked about the National Security Agency’s surveillance of people worldwide. Obama said he is working to reassure foreign allies following a wave of revelations surrounding U.S. spying on other governments.

President Obama: “I can give assurances to the publics in Europe and around the world that we’re not going around snooping at people’s emails or listening to their phone calls. What we try to do is to target, very specifically, areas of concern. We are consulting with the EU in this process. We are consulting with other countries in this process, and finding out from them what are their areas of specific concern, and trying to align what we do in a way that I think alleviates some of the public concerns that people may have.”

In his comments, President Obama acknowledged that technological advancements mean that “risks of abuse are greater than they have been in the past.” Obama suggested he may be open to new legislation to oversee surveillance operations.